Due to the engineering and enforcement constraints along certain urban freeway corridors, it is not always feasible to construct physical barriers to separate traffic in general purpose travel lanes from traffic in managed lanes. Some current high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) and high-occupancy tollway (HOT) systems, as are known in the art, utilize double-striped solid painted lines to separate HOV/HOT lanes from the general purposes lanes, with skip line breaks in the double white lines to indicate when entry into and out of the HOV/HOT lanes is allowed. It is in these zones (zones with skip line breaks in the double white lines) that weaving into and out of the HOV/HOT lane is allowed to occur. From an engineering operations perspective, it is critical that weaving activity be confined to these zones. Unexpected weaving activity results in a significant decrease in the effective capacity of an HOV/HOT lane and reduces transportation system performance. As such, most municipalities or other enforcement agencies will issue traffic citations to drivers who cross the double white lines, entering or exiting the lanes at other than designated entry and exit points. However, enforcement effectiveness is usually a function of the visible enforcement presence and available manpower resources. In many areas, enforcement activities may be limited due to factors including, but not limited to, enforcement staff being unable to reach lane violators when traffic is congested; enforcement activity impeding vehicle throughput on general purpose lanes, reducing system performance; and officers being at risk when there are no safe locations available for vehicles to pull over and receive a citation. As such, enforcement of HOV/HOT violations is often not undertaken or is undertaken halfheartedly in areas with congestion problems.
Therefore, what is desired are systems and methods that overcome challenges found in the art, some of which are described above.